Edgemar Restaurant + Lounge
Restaurant · Ocean Park ·
Asian fusion with unique twists, expertly crafted cocktails
Asian fusion with unique twists, expertly crafted cocktails
"Alongside its usual dinner service Edgemar will run a special $10 cocktail menu by beverage director Eugene Shaw, host a best-costume contest, and have a DJ spinning all night to complete the vibes; reservations are available on OpenTable." - Rebecca Roland
"Edgemar is a restaurant in Santa Monica that tries to do many things and excels at some of them. Let’s start with the positives: the warehouse-esque space on Main Street is pretty. There are tropical plants everywhere, a sleek bar in the back, and enough exposed wooden rafters to feel like you’re in a fancy seaside barn. By 7pm, the room is bumping. Synth tracks blast as big groups pile into circular booths and boozy dates re-up on negronis. A few rounds and you’ll think you’re at The Waterfront, Winston House, or other clubby Westside spots (the kind less commonly found in Santa Monica). But where Edgemar’s fun falters a bit is the food. The menu has over two dozen dishes and touches more continents than a Semester at Sea cruise. There are duck tacos, adobo collard greens, chili wontons, fish and chips, and a cheeseburger for good measure. We’re fine with a trip around the world, but the results tend to be better in concept than in practice. The hamachi comes with a nice cilantro salad, but the cuts of fish are clunky and chewy. The butter chicken is dry and slightly sour. And despite having interesting garnishes like toasted rice powder and burnt mezcal, the crying tiger prawns taste like plain old grilled shrimp. Nothing at Edgemar is outright bad—it’s just elevated clubstaurant food. Which is fine for an elevated clubstaurant, but probably not a destination dinner. Food Rundown Cocktails The cocktails at Edgemar are very good and cast a large geographical net, just like the food. You’ll spot a French Boiler Maker, Guava Mezcal Daisy, and a Bird Of Paradise. Unlike the food, this is a round-the-world trip worth taking. We particularly love the refreshing, lemon-y Vodka Lychee Fix. photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto Shrimp Toast Our favorite dish. Is it a touch oily? Sure, but so are a lot of good shrimp toasts. Sitting at the bar with a cocktail and this sesame-crusted beauty is the best way to experience this place. photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto Hamachi We would get the herby-y cilantro salad on top again if it was its own entree. Unfortunately, it comes over sinewy, poorly cut slices of hamachi we will not be re-ordering. photo credit: Brant Cox Crying Tiger Prawns Toasted rice powder, chili oil, and burnt mezcal—there are a lot of exciting-sounding ingredients on this dish, but zero payoff. What arrives tastes like a plate of grilled shrimp you'd find anywhere. Not terrible, but slightly underwhelming. photo credit: Brant Cox Butter Chicken This is not a good dish. The chicken is overcooked with no spice whatsoever and the tomato-y sauce is more sour than savory-sweet." - Brant Cox
"At the new Edgemar in Santa Monica, chefs Jared Dowling and Jonathan Thoma earnestly weave international flavors together in a refined, refreshing way; the hidden gem on Main Street has a handsome, dimly lit dining room tuned for grown-up Westside dinners. They bring big London energy with dishes like blistered “crying tiger” prawns, Munak Ranch tomato tonnato, and Beijing duck “tacos,” and I was particularly smitten by the rum nước chấm–laden hamachi: thick, firm slices of yellowtail worthy of a top-flight omakase accompanied by a Vietnamese-inflected slaw of cucumber, basil, mint, and onion. Given the kitchen’s six-week tenure, I imagine the flavors will coalesce further to add even more umami, spice, and acid; a server mentioned there’s a balancing act to keep things approachable for the tamer Westside crowd, but I say bring on the flavor like this stellar raw fish appetizer." - Eater Staff
"On Santa Monica’s Main Street I found a London-tinged menu from chefs Jared Dowling and Jonathan Thoma oriented around coastal international cuisines—Japan, India, Southeast Asia—with dishes like lobster fried rice with makrut lime and English peas, Meyer lemon and coriander over raw halibut, smoked lamb shoulder with flatbread, and uni spaghetti alla chitarra, housed in a reworked Frank Gehry-designed development." - Eater Staff
"Set in a barrel-vaulted warehouse inside a Frank Gehry–designed development on Santa Monica’s Main Street, Edgemar opened on August 16 and delivers a stylish, London‑inspired, grown-up dining room with abundant natural light and a striking bow-truss ceiling that reimagines a former early-1900s power station. Thomas Greek’s architecture and Julia Baker’s interiors fuse early 20th-century Precisionist art with mural and bar ornamentation, while executive chef Jared Dowling (formerly of the Fat Radish in New York, the Waterfront and Winston House in Venice) and chef Jonathan Thoma (formerly of Great White) bring international pedigrees and personal influences—Dowling’s time in London and Thoma’s upbringing in Malaysia—into a menu that draws from Japan, India, and Southeast Asia and balances dishes by flavor rather than strict cuisine. I was struck by the raw seafood offerings—hamachi crudo with sliced mandarins and salsa macha, raw halibut with Meyer lemon and coriander, and konbu‑cured sashimi techniques—and by showy preparations like tempura-fried oysters returned to their shells with yuzu tartar, a smoked lamb shoulder seasoned with ras al hanout and smoked over California red oak, and a Ruby Murray chicken curry that channels Dowling’s London memories. Other highlights include lobster fried rice with makrut lime and English peas, uni spaghetti alla chitarra with shiso and Meyer lemon, chile-topped stracciatella pulled in-house with togarashi, and desserts such as a crisp pavlova with black pepper meringue and a chocolate mousse with tangerine, salted whipped cream, and espelette chile; when possible the kitchen uses local produce like Munak Ranch tomatoes and Garcia Farms mandarins. The front-of-house team—general manager Gilda Bahremand and bartender Eugene Shaw (whose cocktails reference his work at the Varnish and Scopa, including a chicory cold brew and aged rum take on an espresso martini)—complements the dining room, and Edgemar plans to add a late-night menu, happy hour, weekend brunch, and weekday lunch; it is open Wednesday–Sunday 5:30–11 p.m., accepts reservations on OpenTable, and is located at 2435 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405." - Matthew Kang
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